During two years, from 1980 to 1982, Catalano joined the maritime compagny Paquet as an electrician before quiting and joining the SNCM until 1986. Meanwhile, since 1981, Catalano had started to become familiar with working clay.He studied during two years at the moudeling and drawing studio Françoise Hamel in Marseille, in the south of France. Bruno Catalano got very inspired by the work of Bruno Lucchesi whose artworks he discovered in a specialized book about clay techniques.

The artist opened his studio in 1985 and began to create his very first clay figurines at that time. He stayed there until 1990 and opened a second studio in 2000. He also took part to several collective exhibitions in local fairs.

At a deep spiritual level I believe this is what God wants to make of us — He wants to take these human bodies with their missing parts and connect them so that though they have missing pieces, they are still strong, still intact. He wants to take the broken, lost pieces of our soul, and put them together, welded stronger than steel. He wants to make of us not sculptures, but living, breathing beings that are broken but whole.

“From years of being a sailor, I was always leaving different countries and places each time and it’s a process that we all go through. I feel like this occurs several times during life and of course everyone has missing pieces in his or her life that he won’t find again. So the meaning can be different for everyone, but to me the sculptures represent a world citizen.”*